What's up, dock? Some want to preserve tsunami relic

By Jeff Barnard

Associated Press

POSTED: 07:04 a.m. HST, Jun 14, 2012

AP/The Oregonian

Scientists from Oregon State University and and Bureau of Land Management agents inspect a 66-foot floating dock with Japanese lettering that washed ashore on Agate Beach on June 6 a mile north of Newport, Ore.

Thousands of people are flocking to see a Japanese dock
that was torn loose by last year's tsunami and ended up on an Oregon
beach. But it won't stay a tourist attraction for long.

Some local
residents and callers to the Oregon Department of Parks and Recreation
are suggesting that state officials leave the 165-ton, 66-foot-long dock
as a memorial.

Chris Havel, a state parks spokesman, said the
state is obligated to protect the integrity of the beach, which means
keeping it clean.

"It's not an automatic decision that everything
must go," he said from Salem, Ore. "We do sit back and say, 'Is there
any reason to change the way Oregon manages the beach with this object?'
The answer here, as it has been in the past, is to protect the beach.
That is more important than anything more temporary."

Other
residents say the dock, made of reinforced concrete and plastic foam, is
an eyesore on Agate Beach, a popular recreational area north of
Newport.

The
dock has become a draw, with tens of thousands of visitors since it
washed up early last week. The parks department has counted 12,791 cars
in the parking lot since the dock washed up June 5. The same week in
2011 saw just 2,077 cars.

"I think they should just pull it
farther up on the beach and make a memorial out of it, myself," said
Judy Kuhl, general manager of the Best Western Plus Agate Beach Inn,
where guests staying on some top floors can see the barge from
balconies. "It would bring people here. It's also something for us to
remember. It's part of history."

At least one newspaper also
backed leaving the dock on the beach, using as an example the stern of a
huge freighter that was left on another Oregon beach for nearly a
decade. An editorial in The World newspaper in Coos Bay said the state
shouldn't hurry to remove it and might consider leaving it permanently.

"It could become a magnet for Japanese tourists," the newspaper wrote.

The
state has similar attractions elsewhere, such as the wreckage of the
ship Peter Iredale at Fort Stevens State Park near Astoria. Havel said
had officials in 1906 been able to remove the iron skeleton, they would
have done so.

The issue of how the state could remove the dock
remains a mystery — for now. On Wednesday, the department opened bids on
proposals to either dismantle the dock and haul it to a landfill, or
tow it off the beach and take it to a port where it could be put back to
use.

Preliminary cost estimates appeared to favor dismantling the
dock. Havel said the state could give some pieces to artists to create a
memorial elsewhere. A decision would be made in days.

Havel said
the state was preparing for more beach trash as debris from the 2011
tsunami continues to show up on northern Oregon beaches. The bulk of
that debris was expected to arrive in the winter.

As for the dock,
retired oil tanker chief mate Dick Clarey said he hoped there wouldn't
be a repeat of an exploding whale that has become Oregon beach lore.

A
1970 video shows the Oregon Highway Division using dynamite to dispose
of a rotting whale carcass, which then rained down on bystanders and
crushed the roof of a car.

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lokelawrote:

Move it away to a place where it's out of the way of beach goers and turn it into a memorial.

on June 14,2012 | 06:34AM

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MeetLoafwrote:

One of much more Japanese trash that will be hitting your shores, be careful what you wish for! Hawaii we are next!

on June 14,2012 | 07:28AM

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loquaciousonewrote:

The makers of the Titanic should have studied under the engineer that designed the dock.

on June 14,2012 | 07:39AM

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BigOpuwrote:

A memorial...Really? There will be thousands of tons of other memorials floating their way if that's what they really want.

on June 14,2012 | 08:15AM

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Upperkulawrote:

Put a $.44 cents stamp on and return to sender.

on June 14,2012 | 08:18AM

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loquaciousonewrote:

If you put a $.44 stamp on anything it'll return to you anyway as insufficient postage.

on June 14,2012 | 08:24AM

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Upperkulawrote:

Can you imagine this thing floating around in our shipping lanes. This is no joke, a ship could run upon this thing partialy submerged and rip out the bottom...OOH worst yet one of our oil tankers heading our way running into this thing what a mess that will make and the lives it will effect. They need to send planes up to track and see if there are large objects like this, and sink them before it's to late.

on June 14,2012 | 08:24AM

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st1dwrote:

let people chip off souvenir pieces from it. it will be gone in a couple of months and the removal will be free.